Oil burner vaporizer and igniter



1950 H. L. FINLEY n 2,530,237

OIL BURNER VAPORIZER AND IGNITER Filed April 9, 1947 5.6.0. TRAN5FORMR INVENTOR- HAROLD L. FINLEY jpqA M-J U 3 www! ATTORNEYfi Patented Nov. 14, 1950 OIL BURNER VAPORIZER AND IGNITER Harold L. Finley, Woodhaven, N. Y., assignor, by

mesne assignments, to General Bronze Corporation, Garden City, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application April 9, 1947, Serial No. 740,356

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates particularly to the vaporization and ignition of fuel oil in a thermal vaporizing bowl.

An object of the invention resides in the provision of an improved igniter that will preheat and ignite the oil in a vaporizing bowl irrespective of the amount of oil in the bowl.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of an improved device in which oil will be elevated above the fuel oil level in the bowl in such a state that it easily may be ignited over such a wide surface area that it rapidly may grow to the surface of the oil in the bowl.

With these and other objects in view, which will appear as the description of this invention progresses, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of the parts described in this specification, illustrated in the drawing and recited in the claims.

In the drawing which illustrates the preferred 0 embodiment of the invention:

Figure l is a sectional view, partly in elevation, illustrating the igniter and its association with a thermal vaporizing type bowl and illustrating the oil supply and oil feeding and level maintaining device;

Figure 2 is a sectional view on line 2-2 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; and

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view of one arrangement for initiating and controlling the opertion of the igniter.

Referring, now, to the drawing, a casing which includes the outer shell i and perforated inner shell 2 is shown. A bowl 3 is mounted in the casing, and is connected with a device for supplying fuel oil thereto and for maintaining a relatively constant fuel oil level therein by means of a conduit 4. The device illustrated is of a Well known commercial type and therefore only the fundamental parts thereof are illustrated. This device includes a chamber 5, which receives fuel oil from a supply 6 through a conduit '5 and a filter 8, discharging into the chamber 5 through a port 9 controlled by a valve H), which is capable of vertical movements to seat and unseat to close and open the port 9. The movements of this valve are effectuated by a float H which is carried by an arm which is pivoted at I2 in the chamber 5 and loosely connected with the valve ID at l3.

This fuel level control device is arranged in such relation to the vaporizing bowl 3 that the level of the fuel oil in the bowl will be in the plane of the surface of the fuel oil in the control device, as will be obvious.

The above described devices that are referred to by reference numerals per se constitute no part of my invention, but their cooperative combination with the fuel oil igniter does constitute one phase of my invention, which invention in its entirety I shall now proceed to describe.

An electrical insulator body I4 is mounted on the casing'and protrudes through openings [5 and It in the outer and inner shells l and 2 respectively, being made tight therein by gaskets ll.

An electrode i8 is mounted in and extends through and snugly fits in an opening in the insulator body l4. At its upper end this electrode is provided, preferably, with a binding post 19 for the reception of a conductor 20 which is connected in circuit, as will later be described.

The electrode l8 has a sparking portion 2| that projects below the lower end of the insulator body [4 and terminates adjacent the upper open end of the vaporizing bowl and, in any event, above the highest oil level therein which is indicated in Figure 1 of the drawing by the reference numeral 22.

A-second and complementalelectrode 23 is in alignment with the electrode I8 and is in circuit with the latter, in the circuit illustrated, being grounded through the vaporizing bowl and the casing. In this form, the electrode 23 is rigid with the bowl and its upper sparking end portion 24 is spaced from the adjacent end of the electrode 18.

An oil elevator and retaining device 25 surrounds this electrode 23 and may be supported in position thereby.

This oil elevating and retaining device is formed of a material that is porous, hasa rough surface, is of low specific heat-and is heat resistant. I have found fire brick to be such a suitable material, and that the oil is elevated thereby by capillarity. Moreover, the surface of this device, being rough, has small spaced hills or projecting points between which are dales or depressions. These hills and dales constitute the outer surface of this oil elevating and retaining device and to this surface oil is supplied by capillarity to form a thin surface film resolved into spaced hill areas and spaced dale areas.

In order to increase the surface area of this oil elevating and retaining device to render it as effective as possible in enhancing a rapid flame growth, I have provided it with ribs 26 that extend longitudinally of the body portion 21, through which the electrode 23 extends, thus increasing the surface area materially over that of a true cylinder, but it is to be understood that the surface of this device may take other forms, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

The oil elevating and retaining device 25 terminates short of the sparking end 24 of the electrode 23, but extends substantially above the upper limit of the oil level in the vaporizing bowl 3.

In operation, when the circuit in which the electrodes I8 and 23 is energized, a spark will jump between the adjacent ends of these electrodes and will continue to so jump until the circuit is interrupted.

Irrespective of the oil level in the vaporizing bowl 3, a portion of the oil will be elevated by capillarity by the oil elevating and suspension device 25 above the level of the oil and this elevated oil will be distributed in a thin film over the surface of said device, and will be resolved into small hill and dale areas, and the oil will be quickly ignited by the spark that jumps between the two electrodes.

One manner in which the electrodes 18 and 23 may be interpolated in a control circuit is illustrated in Figure 3 of the drawing. In this arrangement the conductor 20 is connected to one end of the secondary winding of a stepup transformer, the opposing end of which secondary is grounded, as is also the electrode 23, as illustrated. Th primary winding of said transformer is connected to the power line, which line is interrupted by a temperature-actuated switch which may conveniently be of the bi-metal or other suitable type. This switch is actuated by a coil that is interpolated in a circuit in which the secondary winding of a step down transformer is included, and in which is also included a room thermostatic switch. Th primary winding of this step down transformer is connected across the power line. Thus, when the room thermostat calls for heat and closes its switch, the temperature actuated switch, heretofore referred to, will be closed and complete the electrode circuit through the agency of the step up transformer and the spark will jump between the two electrodes.

While Ihave illustrated and described a particular form of my invention, this has only been for illustrative purposes, and I therefore do not wish to be limited to the details of construction disclosed in this application except in so far as limitation is made necessar by the claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an oil'burner of the type comprising a combustion casing, an oil vaporizing bowl mounted in said casing and having an open upper end and means for supplying oil to and for maintaining a substantially constant normal oil level 4 in said bowl below said open end; the combination of an electrode mounted on said casing and having a sparking portion extending substantially in alignment with the vertical axis of said bowl and terminating above said normal oil level in said bowl, an oil elevating and retaining device mounted in said bowl adjacent the bottom thereof, extending upwardly from said bottom and terminating adjacent the open upper end of said bowl in spaced relation to the end of said electrode and above said normal oil level, said device comprising a rough surface body of liquid absorbent material of low specific heat and having capillary openings therein and substantially throughout communicating with said rough surface and having a vertical longitudinal opening therein substantially in alignment with said electrode, a second electrode extending vertically upwardly through said vertical opening, snugly fitting therein and terminating above the upper end of said oil elevating and retaining device and in spaced relation-to and adjacent to the end of the sparking portion of said first mentioned electrode.

2. The combination of elements recited in claim 1 wherein said oil elevating and retaining device includes longitudinally extending spaced ribs on the surface thereof and extending above and below said normal oil level.

3. The combination of elements recited in claim 1 wherein said oil elevating and retaining device is provided with a fiat porous upper surface spaced below the upper'end of said second mentioned electrode and extending laterally therefrom.

4. The combination of elements recited in claim 1 wherein said oil elevating and retaining device includes longitudinally extending spaced ribs on the surface thereof and extending above and below said normal oil level and wherein said oil elevating and retaining device is provided with a flat porous upper surface spaced below the upper end of said second mentioned electrode and extending laterally therefrom.

HAROLD L. FINLEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,888,695 Powers Nov. 22, 1932 1,910,585 Barholf et al May 23, 1933 2,052,514 Kinsman Aug. 25, 1936 2,194,081 Bock Mar. 19, 1940 2,431,456 Bock Nov. 25, 1947 

